A Californian Heads East, Meetups on the Road.

I had somewhat of a strange situation presented to me at work earlier this week. I had to fly from California to work one day near Atlantic City,NJ before flying back. Among my business trips, this one made less sense than most, but whatever. Sometimes life makes less sense.

Recently I’ve been getting a bit sick of traveling so much. Well, not really the traveling part; I love seeing new places. It’s the being away from home part. I miss DW and our eccentric zoo of furry creatures!

Being one who makes a conscious habit of squeezing happiness out of less than stellar circumstances, I decided to fit a couple of quick meetups with friends into the trip! The great thing about this age of technology and social media is that I tend to have friends somewhere near many of the places to which I must go. Isn’t that great?

On Monday I flew into Philadelphia and planned to drive into AC, and who agreed to give me a little tour of the historic city? El Senor de Salty Sizzle Strips, The Proponent of Pan Fried Pork Product, Brother Bark Breath, Mr. Bacon!

We had been friends online for a while, occasionally dropping each other a line about guitarists or other random things (I find it funny that with most of the friends I’ve met through this running site, we end up mostly not talking about running at all). The man is an excellent and entertaining writer, and I was excited to meet the real dude in person.

From the start the visit felt relaxed and natural. We pretty much talked about everything as he drove through the city, pointing out important things. I was astonished by some of the architecture, as I always am in historic cities on the east coast. Out west there really isn’t anything older than a couple hundred years, so whenever I find myself over in the birthplace of early American colonies I revel in the feeling of aged civilization. It felt like riding around with an old friend.

I have to mention dinner. We slid into this small place about the size of a bowling lane and boasting an impressive menu of about 200 whiskeys! Bacon had built up the burgers in this place quite a bit and I must admit I was a bit dubious, Not because I distrusted him but because I hesitated to get my hopes up too high and have them ruthlessly dashed. As it turns out, I was a fool! A damn fool! Village Whiskey served the finest burger which has ever graced my lips. And I do mean graced, as the taste was heavenly. I am still whistfully pining for another and probably will for months to come.

The man we all know as Mr. Bacon is in all honesty a pretty awesome guy to talk to. He’s just as funny in person, if you can get over his incessant bark-chewing habit. Very interesting and quick-witted, and we talked about everything from life paths to how to avoid vomiting on children at races.

He’s entering ultra territory this Sunday, so everyone wish him luck!

All in all, I had a great time. A chance to get a photo together was ruined by an oncoming car, but I got a pic of my host earlier, and he rolled Blue Steel, Le Tigre, AND Magnum into this piercing look for you all:

It's all fun and games until someone gets roofied and someone else gets pushed from a moving car on the highway.

The work was pretty innocuous, just another quick wire hookup and testing. I got it done but was starving by the end of the day. The foreman offered to show me his favorite restaurant so my running plans were delayed, but I got to celebrate another finished job with some crab cakes and a tasty bourbon!

By the way, you have to wait three hours to undertake a progression run without revisiting crab cakes and bourbon.

While I packed that night go home, Mr Remy saw I was close and invited me up for a run before flying out the next day. He’s another friend I find entertaining, and I had no idea he was so close, so suddenly I was excited for a last minute hangout!

I drove up to Emmaus and met Mark at Rodale in the morning. It was a very cool place, and I even got a sneak peek at the newest edition of RW, with an incredible section focusing on the stories ofBostonrunners this year. It really is powerful and definitely worth a read.

We headed out for a quick running tour of Emmaus and chatted the whole way. I was feeling the midnight workout from the night before but thankfully Mark set a manageable pace and the conversation was as interesting as the wildlife area we ran through. He is more reserved and laid back than I had imagined, but very intelligent and just an all around cool dude to hang out with. He was even generous enough to sign a couple books to give to me, despite my insistence that he didn’t have to. File one more in the “Gentleman and a Scholar” folder!

After that I embarked on what turned out to be a very long trip home. That morning I woke up at 5am EST and I finally collapsed into bed around 2am PST to squeeze in a few Z’s before waking for work at 5:30. I kind of caught up a little last night, but it’s time to start the weekend! Portland here we come!

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